Square Enix cites a new Dragon Quest game and the rerelease of an old Final Fantasy game as key drivers in its latest six-month earnings report, which shows sales and profits on the rise.
This week Square Enix released it half-year earnings results, and the numbers that matter seem to be on the rise thanks (at least in large part) to the company's "Digital Entertainments" (aka video games) business.
These results encompass the six months ending September 30th, so they're a follow-through of the company's last quarterly report, which showed sales and profits rising in the company's Digital Entertainments division.
Keeping that in mind, industry watchers should note that Square Enix reported profits of 25.8 billion yen (~$226.4 million USD) on revenues of 132 billion yen ($1.15 billion USD). That's more than double the 11.11 billion yen ($97.4 million USD) in profits the company brought in during the same period a year ago, and most of that comes from a year-over-year rise in profits from sales of video games.
According to the company, that's chiefly due to the fact that it launched a new Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of a Golden Age, during this six-month period. It also cited Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and Nier: Automata as contributing significantly to the uptick in earnings.
The company reported year-over-year increases in sales and profits for all its divisions save the Amusements business, which saw a slight decrease (roughly 0.7 percent) in sales due to what Square claims is a decrease in new amusement machines being released.
Tokyo-based Wall Street Journal reporter Takashi Mochizuki listened in to a conference call with Square Enix investors that accompanied this release, and shared some interesting tidbits (with English translations) on Twitter today.
According to his reporting, Square Enix has sold over 3 million copies of Dragon Quest XI so far, over 2 million copies of Nier: Automata, and nearly 6.6 million copies of Final Fantasy XV.
Despite a good half-year report the company is not adjusting its forecasts for the full fiscal year because it has no big releases planned between now and when the fiscal year ends in March; Mochizuki also noted that Square Enix execs spoke about aggressively targeting games at the Nintendo Switch, suggesting that it was a good platform to put "middle-range" games which are otherwise challenging to sell in the modern games market.
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